Elizabeth Warren: Fed chair has failed at both his jobs

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) slammed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over his handling of the economy Sunday.

“My views on Jay Powell are well-known at this point. He has had two jobs. One is to deal with monetary policy. One is to deal with regulation. He has failed at both,” Warren said during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The Fed is expected to raise interest rates again this week despite turmoil in the banking sector that has led to the collapse of two banks.

The Massachusetts senator, who has been vocal in calling for stronger regulations of the banking sector, also slammed Powell for deregulation that happened under his watch, including the roll back of measures in the Dodd-Frank Act, legislation that was enacted in 2010 in response to the 2008 financial crisis.

Powell “stepped up and took a flamethrower to the regulations,” Warren said on ABC's "This Week."

It is moves like this that led Warren to oppose Powell’s nomination to the Fed, she said.

“Jerome Powell has said that all he wants to do is lighten regulations on the banks. I opposed him as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank precisely for that reason. I said he was a dangerous man to have in this position,” she said.

Warren, who has long opposed government intervention that helps big business at the expense of small business and the nation's workforce, also criticized Powell for sacrificing U.S. employment in order to combat inflation.

“What Chair Powell is trying to do — and he has said fairly explicitly is that they are trying to, in effect, slow down the economy so that (this is, by the Fed’s own estimate) — 2 million people will lose their jobs. And I believe that is not what the chair of the Federal Reserve should be doing,” Warren said.

When asked whether President Joe Biden should replace Powell, Warren told NBC’s Chuck Todd: “I don't think he should be Chairman of the Federal Reserve.”